Happy 4th of July!

Posted on July 4, 2014 by SouthernGirl2

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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65 Responses to Happy 4th of July!

  1. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 5, 2014 at 8:24 am
    Reply
  2. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 5, 2014 at 8:23 am
    Reply
  3. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 5, 2014 at 8:06 am

    Barack & Michelle waves to veterans and their familes as they host Independence Day barbecue on the South Lawn of the White House

    The First Couple waves to veterans and their families at an Independence Day barbecue on the South Lawn of the WH

    Reply
  4. rikyrah says:
    July 4, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    School Daze is available for streaming on Netflix!

    Watching it makes me even madder that A Different World isn’t available on DVD (past that awful 1st season)

    Reply
  17. rikyrah says:
    July 4, 2014 at 5:41 pm

    Friday, July 4, 2014
    The SCOTUS Bait And Switch
    It seems the Supreme Court isn’t quite done injecting religious freedom into health insurance coverage for women. On Tuesday, a day after ruling Hobby Lobby had the right to refuse to provide company health insurance coverage for contraception it (erroneously) believed was abortion, the Supreme Court ruled that Hobby Lobby’s beliefs trumped women’s individual rights and that the company could then refuse to cover any forms of birth control.

    Less than a day after the United States Supreme Court issued its divisive ruling onBurwell v. Hobby Lobby, it has already begun to toss aside the supposedly narrow interpretation of the decision. On Tuesday, the Supremes ordered lower courts to rehear any cases where companies had sought to deny coverage for any type of contraception, not just the specific types Hobby Lobby was opposed to.

    The Affordable Care Act had listed 20 forms of contraception that had to be covered as preventive services. But Hobby Lobby, a craft supply chain, claimed that Plan B, Ella, and two types of IUD were abortifacients that violated the owners’ religious principles. The science was against Hobby Lobby—these contraceptives do not prevent implantation of a fertilized egg and are not considered abortifacients in the medical world—but the conservative majority bought Hobby Lobby’s argument that it should be exempted from the law.

    Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the the 5-4 opinion, used numerous qualifiers in an attempt to limit its scope, but a series of orders released by the court Tuesday contradict any narrow interpretation of the ruling.

    It got worse on Thursday as the Supreme Court then decided that non-profit organizations who objected to birth control coverage were somehow being crushed by a substantial burden of having to inform the government that they were non-profit organizations who wanted an exemption, and gave Illinois’s Wheaton College an immediate injunction against having to fill out paperwork to say they wanted to opt out.

    ………………………….

    So, oops! Sorry about your vagina, but the religious rights of a corporation outweigh the individual rights of a .woman’s belief that birth control is a necessary medical expense that she should have covered through insurance she gets as part of compensation from her employer for working there.

    Happy Independence Day, corporations! You’re now more important than women! Congratulations!

    http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-scotus-bait-and-switch.html

    Reply
  18. rikyrah says:
    July 4, 2014 at 5:39 pm

    Wednesday, July 2, 2014
    Last Call For The GOP Goal
    Joe Sonka reminds us that there is a difference between the two political parties, and that is the stated goal of the GOP is to end all abortion in America by criminalizing it

    The National Right to Life Commission (NRLC) held their national convention in Louisville this weekend at the Galt House, rallying supporters to their cause of ending legal abortion in America. Their featured speaker Saturday morning, Sen. Mitch McConnell, told a slightly more than half-full conference room that “the tide is turning” on the issue, and he would help the anti-abortion advocates win their fight.

    “I’m not sure when it first occurred to me that we are winning this debate, but there’s no question that we are,” said McConnell. “The signs are everywhere, and you have played a huge role in that.”

    One of those signs came two days later, when a 5-4 Supreme Court decision ruled in favor of the craft store Hobby Lobby, who argued that they should be exempt from an Affordable Care Act mandate that they must provide their employees coverage for four types of birth control the company considers “abortion,” because this violates Hobby Lobby’s religious freedom. Despite no legal or scientific basis for that claim, the court ruled that “closely held” private companies — which make up 90 percent of American companies — are exempt from this mandate if they claim it goes against their religious beliefs, granting such companies the same religious rights as persons.

    With the current makeup of Congress and the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade does not appear in eminent danger, but abortion opponents openly celebrated the Hobby Lobby ruling as an advancement for their larger cause of chipping away at women’s reproductive rights. At last weekend’s convention in Louisville, McConnell urged attendees to help elect him majority leader of the Senate this fall so he can push through legislation banning abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy, which has already passed the House.

    Two Republican congressmen from Kentucky, Representatives Andy Barr and Brett Guthrie, who also spoke Saturday morning, are co-sponsors of legislation that would not only ban all abortion in America — with no exemptions for rape, incest and health of the mother — but could go further than the Hobby Lobby decision, banning many forms of birth control.

    And that’s really the point for the American Taliban here. If you take away reproductive health care choices, then women will have to remain celibate or have to be punished for being sluts, and that will magically fix everything that’s wrong with America. It’s laughable, or would be, if it again wasn’t the stated goal of one of the major political parties in this country and the position of tens of millions of their voters.

    http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/07/last-call-for-gop-goal.html

    Reply
  22. rikyrah says:
    July 4, 2014 at 5:27 pm

    11 Beautiful Photos Of America That Will Blow You Away

    Bask in America’s gorgeousness with these incredible photos. posted on July 4, 2014, at 8:06 a.m.

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/timfullerton/11-photos-of-america-that-will-blow-you-away-a3kt

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    July 4, 2014 at 5:00 pm

    Oops! Rick Perry Completely Implodes Republican Immigration Field Hearing
    Tommy Christopher on July 04, 2014

    One of the big pieces of “news” to come out of Thursday’s Republican Anti-Immigrant Antiques Roadshow was the fact that Governor Rick Perry (R-Texas) wants the National Guard to “secure our border” from the 50,000 children who are streaming across it from Central America, but less reported is Perry’s complete faceplant when Democratic Congressman Filemon Vela (D-Texas) asked him the simplest of questions.

    After an hour or so of testimony from Perry, Vela completely hobbled the Republicans’ main talking point on this immigration crisis by asking Perry “If we had a thousand National Guard at our borders, as you propose, how would that have prevented the influx of these unaccompanied children who, for all practical purposes, are surrendering themselves?”

    Perry hesitated, then launched into a verbal dance-off with himself. “The power of boots on the ground cannot be overstated,” Perry began, then proceeded to demonstrate that it also can’t really be explained. Instead of describing how the National Guard could repel unaccompanied children from the border, Perry instead went off on several tangents about criminal activity, neighborhood watches, and concluded by saying there would be no influx of children because that’s what he thinks.

    Later in the hearing, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) helped Perry further destroy the Republican narrative on the current immigration crisis when he asked Perry to recall the dates on which the DACA policy and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (which created special rules for unaccompanied children from non-contiguous countries) were enacted, since these are the policies that are supposedly to blame for drawing these unaccompanied children to our borders, years after the fact. Perry interrupted Swalwell to again insist that the real problem, and the only solution, is National Guard troops on the border.

    http://thedailybanter.com/2014/07/oops-rick-perry-completely-implodes-republican-immigration-field-hearing/#.U7bwocVNmq0.twitter

    Reply
  30. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 4, 2014 at 1:37 pm

    Y’all ready? Here we go! Here we go! Everybody here we go…

    Down Down Do Your Dance…Do Your Dance…

    Reply
  33. Ametia says:
    July 4, 2014 at 12:19 pm

    Remarks by the President at Naturalization Ceremony
    July 04, 2012

    0:58 A.M. EDT

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Good morning, everybody.

    AUDIENCE: Good morning, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Secretary Napolitano, Director Mayorkas, distinguished guests, family and friends — welcome to the White House. Happy Fourth of July. What a perfect way to celebrate America’s birthday — the world’s oldest democracy, with some of our newest citizens.

    I have to tell you, just personally, this is one of my favorite things to do. It brings me great joy and inspiration because it reminds us that we are a country that is bound together not simply by ethnicity or bloodlines, but by fidelity to a set of ideas. And as members of our military, you raised your hand and took an oath of service. It is an honor for me to serve as your Commander-in-Chief. Today, you raised your hand and have taken an oath of citizenship. And I could not be prouder to be among the first to greet you as “my fellow Americans.”

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/04/remarks-president-naturalization-ceremony

    Reply
  35. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 4, 2014 at 11:36 am

    CHP officer beats black woman unmercifully. Resisting arrest my ass. The woman was protecting her head from the blows.

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      July 4, 2014 at 11:53 am

      OMG JUST BARBARIC.

      So we’re not seeing what we’re seeing here? There was no resisting arrest.

      Reply
    • Ametia says:
      July 4, 2014 at 12:01 pm

      This pig is one angry fucker! where does all his RAGE come from?

      Reply
    • Ametia says:
      July 4, 2014 at 1:44 pm

      WHY DO THESE MEN HATE WOMEN? First you have Uncle Tom Clarence Thomas and 4 white male justices ruling against employers denying coverage for women having CONTRACEPTION.

      Then this BRUTE banging the HELL out of a DEFENSELESS Black woman.

      Reply
    • Yahtc says:
      July 4, 2014 at 2:56 pm

      I am horrified by the evil rage of the officer! SCARY!!!

      I only wish that personal video phone cameras existed BEFORE the Watts Riots. Then people would have seen what was going on and how the police were treating the people of Watts and understood the genesis of the riots.

      Reply
      • Ametia says:
        July 4, 2014 at 3:06 pm

        It’s absolutely HORRIFYING.

        And at some point, I’d like to know why the videographer didn’t INTERVENE You know like SIGNAL FOR HELP and continue capturing this nightmare on camera

        Reply
  39. Ametia says:
    July 4, 2014 at 10:34 am

    NYT Interview

    Jay Carney: ‘A Little Perspective Is Useful’
    JULY 3, 2014

    Now that you’re leaving your job as White House press secretary, do you know which cable news network you’re going to be a pundit for? I haven’t made any decisions about what combination of things I’m going to be doing. I’m not going to go back to being a journalist full time, but I may write a bit. I’m not going to disappear from view.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/magazine/jay-carney.html?_r=2

    Reply
  40. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 4, 2014 at 10:34 am

    Potus giving shout out to Native Americans this 4th of July!

    President Obama: Everyone of us…unless we’re Native American has an ancestor who was born somewhere else.

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      July 4, 2014 at 10:39 am

      I, too, sing America.

      I am the darker brother.
      They send me to eat in the kitchen
      When company comes,
      But I laugh,
      And eat well,
      And grow strong.

      Tomorrow,
      I’ll be at the table
      When company comes.
      Nobody’ll dare
      Say to me,
      “Eat in the kitchen,”
      Then.

      Besides,
      They’ll see how beautiful I am
      And be ashamed–

      I, too, am America.
      Langston Hughes

      Reply
  42. SouthernGirl2 says:
    July 4, 2014 at 10:25 am

    Happy 4th, everyone!

    I have guests driving down from Dallas to celebrate the 4th with us, so I’ll be in and out on the blog today. We’ll do the fireworks tonight.

    Reply
  44. rikyrah says:
    July 4, 2014 at 8:25 am

    Happy 4th of July Everyone!

    Reply

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